Yo La Tengo
"Camp Yo La Tengo" CD EP (Matador)
Beautiful noise, late at night. Sometimes it's hard to hear where the music ends and where the feelings begin with Yo La; where their guitars leave off and their sentiments pick up the slack. Or maybe I'm just projecting my own ideas onto their music. Whatever the case, this version of "Blue Line Swinger" is a true heartbreaker, all noisy guitars singing to themselves and squealing as they try to break loose from the constraints music places on them, and the stripped down rendition of "Tom Courtenay" is simply lovely. Not like this was in question, but Yo La certainly does have that most ineffable "it" which makes music capable of sinking into the brain like endorphins, leaving listeners swooning in its wake.